Movie News, Reviews, and Discussion Super-Thread

[Don Rumata]

The empire strikes back

https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1420858831119081474

Wasn't everybody creaming themselves over Pugh anyway? Disney can just switch over to her as the new femme fatale of the franchise.
Or maybe that's why Johansson is willing to burn that bridge.

[Great Rumbler]

The empire strikes back

https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1420858831119081474

Wasn't everybody creaming themselves over Pugh anyway? Disney can just switch over to her as the new femme fatale of the franchise.
Or maybe that's why Johansson is willing to burn that bridge.

Her character is over and done with anyway.

[Madrun Badrun]

Watching FF9 now.  I'm pretty sure that the reason Dom has a brother he didn't even mention in 8 movies is that it's the only plausible thing the writers could come up with to get Mia back without Brian.  I really love this series. 

[Lonewulfeus]

I watched New Mutants cause I’m old person/dog sitting and they have HBO.  Honestly wasn’t terrible.  My bar for movie enjoyment is pretty low, I’ll admit.  They did mutanty stuff and there was a giant bear with glowing eyes and it fucked shit up.  Wouldn’t watch again but I’ve done worse with 90 minutes before.  Also tried the Comoran Strike BBC series.  I absolutely love the books but couldn’t get through 10 minutes of the first part of the first book adaptation cause they already butchered the characters

[Madrun Badrun]

I liked FF9 more than 8.  Really ridiculous. 

[Joe Molotov]

By FF10, they’ll probably have the ability to convincingly deep fake Paul Walker back into the series.

[team filler]

he will then die in a car accident at the end of the movie 

[Transhuman]

Jesus man that's messed up, you know he died in a car crash right?

[Cauliflower Of Love]

I give this movie a 9/10



https://www.tvguide.com/movies/the-nines/2030144916/

[Don Rumata]

Jesus man that's messed up, you know he died in a car crash right?

No one's ever really gone, when you've got La Familia.

[Bebpo]

Watched Fear Street Pt.2 1978 - It was good, but kind of vapid. Like the beginning was good, but then it's basically just an hour of a dude going around axing people. I get it's a genre flick, but it's just so story-empty I get a bit bored. Still a solid popcorn flick *** / ****

Hoping the last one has a bit more story to it since it's the origin tale.

[Bebpo]

All this F9 talk got me to look if that meant F9 is on streaming/rental and I see it is.

Gonna watch it for sure, love me some Fast series, 8 wasn't even that bad. But I skipped Hobbs & Shaw and feel like I need to watch that first out of chronological obligation...

[Don Rumata]

Hobbs & Shaw was the point i gave up on the series tbh, just too far into cartoon action for my taste.
I'll stick with Mission Impossible and McQuarrie da god. 

[MMaRsu]

I think you're missing out on everyone online watching the latest Marvel flick and if you wait 3 months to watch it you're missing out, behind the times and will have the whole thing spoiled.

For non-comic book stuff yeah it doesn't matter.


I will pay $30 for Shang-Chi.

You can just torrent it the day it comes out man.. fuck paying $30 to Disney. Ugh



Looks GREAT

[Potato]

I'm absolutely sick of Will Smith Oscar bait

[Quaker]

I like the dude but it's kind of wild how his only genuine non-ironic bangers(not taking box office into consideration) are like Ali, Enemy of the State and Men in Black 1. If you widen the net to let in a little trash I guess you can get I Am Legend, Bad Boys and ID4. Compare that with Denzel...

[Transhuman]

He peaked with Independence Day, and even that movie is only good by 1996 standards.

[naff]

You gotta account for Bad Boys 2 and I, Robot is decent. I actually really like trite but entertaining era Smith. Oscar bait era though 

[naff]

   i went to wild wild west at the movies because of this as an 11 year old. i blame mtv

[Great Rumbler]

Haven't watched a Will Smith movie in 14 years.

[bork]

I liked FF9 more than 8.  Really ridiculous.

I think I need to go back and watch 8 again to see, but I just finished 9 and wasn't all that thrilled with it.  Have always enjoyed these movies as stupid-fun popcorn flicks, but even with that mindset, this was just kind of...eh.  There were some action scenes that were enjoyable though.

Also I swear the dudes from Tokyo Drift all look like they've aged much worse than everybody else.  Lucas Black in his late 30's looks older than Vin Diesel who's now in his 50's.

[Madrun Badrun]

The TD guys just aged like regular straight to DVD people.  You can't compare them to the family.

[Joe Molotov]

I think you're missing out on everyone online watching the latest Marvel flick and if you wait 3 months to watch it you're missing out, behind the times and will have the whole thing spoiled.

For non-comic book stuff yeah it doesn't matter.


I will pay $30 for Shang-Chi.

You can just torrent it the day it comes out man.. fuck paying $30 to Disney. Ugh

Shang-Chi isn't coming to Disney+, theatrical release only, just in time for the Lambda surge.

[Potato]

I think you're missing out on everyone online watching the latest Marvel flick and if you wait 3 months to watch it you're missing out, behind the times and will have the whole thing spoiled.

For non-comic book stuff yeah it doesn't matter.


I will pay $30 for Shang-Chi.

You can just torrent it the day it comes out man.. fuck paying $30 to Disney. Ugh

Shang-Chi isn't coming to Disney+, theatrical release only, just in time for the Lambda surge.

That Black Widow/Scarlett Johansson disrespect!! 

[Don Rumata]

He peaked with Independence Day, and even that movie is only good by 1996 standards.

Man in Black 1 is great, and better than ID in every respect.
Infact, i think MiB 3 is also pretty decent (the one with Josh Brolin).

[Joe Molotov]

The Green Knight

Fantastic movie. Kino af. 

Other movies I watched this weekend:

The Boy Behind the Door: Two kids get abducted by pedo sex traffickers and one kid has to evade capture inside the pedo's lair for 90 minutes and rescue the other kid. Solid flick, it's kinda like Home Alone meets 8mm.

Don't Breathe: Another "people trapped inside a house with a bad guy for 90 minutes" flick. I hadn't seen this movie before, but the trailer for the sequel had me curious, so I finally decided to check it out. Good movie, that turkey baster scene tho. 

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark: Decent tweener horror movie, but I feel like it could have used just a little more bite. It feels especially soft after watching something like the Fear Street Trilogy. Yeah, this is PG-13 and that was R-ish, but Scary Stories feels like it could have been rated PG.

[Bebpo]

Didn't watch Old but gf liked it and recommended I read the graphic novel Sandcastle that it's based on. So I read that and then read the ending change to the film. Does M.Night normally not write his own stories anymore? Probably for the better.

Anyhow about the movie,

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I think his twist that it's a research company works and was implied in the original GN (although I still think it's a stupid concept of "there's just this magical beach that ages people to death in a day - no explanation"), but the second twist of the happy ending rescue and arrests sounds so silly on paper and completely against the tone of the rest which at least if it's like the GN is pretty nihilistic and depressing film about just watching a bunch of people get old and die in a day.

[close]

Honestly, the GN was pretty depressing and assuming the movie is pretty much the same it doesn't seem like a movie I'd enjoy watching just because it's such a downer with no hope.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

outside the dumb happy ending

[close]

[naff]

Didn't watch Old but gf liked it and recommended I read the graphic novel Sandcastle that it's based on. So I read that and then read the ending change to the film. Does M.Night normally not write his own stories anymore? Probably for the better.

Yeah, the script was real bad. Probably the worst of any Shymamulan film

[Bebpo]

Suicide Squad is up on HBO Max, didn't realize it would be out tonight instead of Fri. Guess I'll be watching that tonight.

[Nintex]

Watched Black Widow

Overall I liked it more than I thought I would but the latter half of the film was a bit weak after a very strong start. The plot doesn't make sense in the wider Avengers universe either.
Some other organization such as Shield or even Hydra would've definitely noticed the Red Room was still active.

I also feel that the events of the past they bring up are much more interesting than the 'present day' events that the plot is focused on.

[Joe Molotov]

Didn't watch Old but gf liked it and recommended I read the graphic novel Sandcastle that it's based on. So I read that and then read the ending change to the film. Does M.Night normally not write his own stories anymore? Probably for the better.

Anyhow about the movie,

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I think his twist that it's a research company works and was implied in the original GN (although I still think it's a stupid concept of "there's just this magical beach that ages people to death in a day - no explanation"), but the second twist of the happy ending rescue and arrests sounds so silly on paper and completely against the tone of the rest which at least if it's like the GN is pretty nihilistic and depressing film about just watching a bunch of people get old and die in a day.

[close]

Honestly, the GN was pretty depressing and assuming the movie is pretty much the same it doesn't seem like a movie I'd enjoy watching just because it's such a downer with no hope.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

outside the dumb happy ending

[close]

The ending was dumb and doesn't even make logical sense.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The reason why they couldn't leave the beach was because the change in relative time happened too fast, and they said it was like a diver coming up from deep underwater too fast, and they all blacked out when they tried to leave. But then they find out that the coral reef "blocked the magnetic waves" or whatever, so they could escape the Old Beach through the coral. But how is that any different that just leaving the normal way? Wouldn't the time change happen ever faster and make the effect even worse? They also said "Maybe we can walk really slow and make it" but then someone was like "Yeah, but that'll take hours!" so instead that just sat around for hours and did nothing and never tried it. 

[close]

[Madrun Badrun]

Suicide Squad was a lot of fun.  It's Deadpool levels of obnoxious and comedy forward and so doesn't have the plot beats of Guardians.  Starro was great.

[team filler]

didn't enjoy su squad too much. maybe need to watch again in a better mood. starfish was cool final boss, was hoping he would jump in ocean 

[chronovore]

Yeah, I really wanna see The Green Knight. Damn you A24 for being a jerk about streaming platforms. May actually drag myself to a theater during a pandemic to see this.

I went to go see the green knight on its opening day, in a theater in downtown San Jose. When we arrived with our digitally purchased tickets there was a sign that announced (from that day) they implemented a policy requiring proof of vaccination to be shown for all attendees. There was no warning about this on the ticket purchase site, nor on the confirmation email.

The theaters ticket taker got chirpy with us, citing that they had announced the policy on the theaters Facebook page, Twitter feed, etc.

Does anyone follow the social media of a theater they’re planning to visit? I just know what movie I want to see and then I go to the place where it’s playing.

[Transhuman]

Yeah that's completely idiotic, especially since the policy was introduced that day and you had already purchased the tickets online. Did they let you in or did you just get a refund

[Bebpo]

Suicide Squad was a lot of fun.  It's Deadpool levels of obnoxious and comedy forward and so doesn't have the plot beats of Guardians.  Starro was great.

didn't enjoy su squad too much. maybe need to watch again in a better mood. starfish was cool final boss, was hoping he would jump in ocean 

It's a weird movie.

Substance and emotional plot beats and characters you give a shit about it is so completely vapid in a spike & mike's festival of animation shorts way, and in that respect feels more like Gunn's really early tromeo stuff.

Otoh, visually it looks GREAT like comic book panels brought to life, it's very entertaining, has some good action scenes, has a dozen or so good joke scenes, Idris is surprisingly good and Margo Robbie is great as always though it just reminds me that Birds of Prey was a much better film.

I think I might like it more on a re-watch, it feels like the most Suda51 punk $200 million dollar hollywood comic book film yet, but it's just so empty and everything is phoned in so you know what'll happen in the next beat.

It's a solid 3/4, probably better than Guardians 2 which I can't remember anything besides Kurt Russel in the opening, but not as good as Guardians 1 for Gunn's comic book stuff.

I think Birds of Prey basically did this same thing, but a bit more grounded and actually having some character substance, plus McGregor was great. Birds of Prey was like a 3.5/4 and maybe my favorite modern DC film in retrospect.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, I really wanna see The Green Knight. Damn you A24 for being a jerk about streaming platforms. May actually drag myself to a theater during a pandemic to see this.

I went to go see the green knight on its opening day, in a theater in downtown San Jose. When we arrived with our digitally purchased tickets there was a sign that announced (from that day) they implemented a policy requiring proof of vaccination to be shown for all attendees. There was no warning about this on the ticket purchase site, nor on the confirmation email.

The theaters ticket taker got chirpy with us, citing that they had announced the policy on the theaters Facebook page, Twitter feed, etc.

Does anyone follow the social media of a theater they’re planning to visit? I just know what movie I want to see and then I go to the place where it’s playing.

That's crazy implementation. But to be fair I'd feel a lot better going to a theater that had a policy like that. Wish we had one here.

I may end up just skipping Green Knight for six months until it streams because covid ain't great down here right now.

[Bebpo]

Also a shout out that if you own a 4k/hdr TV, Suicide Squad is by leagues the best looking 4k/hdr transfer I have ever seen. I think it beats those planet earth things as the show off of all show offs for TVs. It's just an incredibly sharp detailed image at almost all times with amazing color palette.

Apparently this whole thing was shot in IMAX so it transfers very, very well to 4k in terms of detail.

[Nintex]

I know a lot of people dunked on Tenet but that looked fucking great in 4K/HDR too.

Same with a bunch of other films that you might not expect to look that good.
Something like Arrival and Prometheus really surprised me.

Most modern Star Wars/Marvel/DC(except the Nolan flicks) don't look as good because the effects weren't rendered in 4k.

[Madrun Badrun]

Ya SS was devoid of a lot of character work, which did give it a weird feel but I think works in a movie where the premise is to kill them off.  I'm not sure if I'd want that to continue in a sequel but I think it worked well here to offer something fresh. 

Also, Guardians 2 is better than 1 and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise.  Remember this summarizing a lot of how I thought about it

[team filler]

I enjoyed the su squad 1 extended cut, probably why I don't like the sequel. felt like it was trying too hard to be other movies like deadpool. harley felt out of place, like they just needed to put her in somewhere. I did like how she saved herself before the squad could do it. most of the humor was lame, ryan reynolds is not walking through that door 

[Sideshow Raheem]

Suicide Squad isn't great. It's better than the first Suicide Squad, but that's not saying anything.

There's a scene where the office workers are dancing around as part of a music video, celebrating the Squad deaths and collecting their monies. It's pretty meanspirited. As is the setup for the joke about the bird lighting on the dead guy's face and taking a bite.

And for some reason these people all work in a tiny, cramped office and they're always screaming.

Can someone here please explain to me what was going on with

spoiler (click to show/hide)

King Shark and those jellyfish monsters in the huge tank? Was there any setup or context?

[close]

[Nintex]

GOG2 is great. They could've went with a simple sequel that played out mostly like the first movie but they didn't and deserve credit for that.

[Straight Edge]

The HBO Max app is pure garbage. Gave up on trying to watch SS 2 nights in a row now due to constant buffering.

[chronovore]

Yeah that's completely idiotic, especially since the policy was introduced that day and you had already purchased the tickets online. Did they let you in or did you just get a refund

The ticket-taker referred us to the box-office for a refund after cajoling us for not following the theater's social media updates. The box-office had a technical hiccup that prevented them from issuing a refund, then hand-wrote an email address on a notepad, asked us to write them an email for the refund. Wrote email, got an OOO response saying they'd deal with it the following week.

Totes professional.

[Bebpo]

Finished Fear Street Trilogy movie #3. Was solid. The first half in 1666 was kinda generic and no Vvitch, but the second half was fun and pulled it all together for a strong ending.

I enjoyed the trilogy but they didn't take a lot of risks. Popcorn entertainment for sure.

Also I'm weird I guess because I find

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Actual OOOOHHH EVIL SATAN/THE DEVIL being behind stuff pretty old-timey lame. It's 2020, Satan is a cool anime bro.

Was hoping the blob thing controlling things by evil flies or whatever was an extraterrestrial thing like Color Out of Space that had always been in the land there or something.

[close]

[Don Rumata]

Satan is still cool as a baddie.

Satan > Lovecraft Space Shit.

It's why i disliked the second half of Bloodborne.

[Transhuman]

Yeah that's completely idiotic, especially since the policy was introduced that day and you had already purchased the tickets online. Did they let you in or did you just get a refund

The ticket-taker referred us to the box-office for a refund after cajoling us for not following the theater's social media updates. The box-office had a technical hiccup that prevented them from issuing a refund, then hand-wrote an email address on a notepad, asked us to write them an email for the refund. Wrote email, got an OOO response saying they'd deal with it the following week.

Totes professional.

Yeah i'm all for vaccine passports for businesses but that's fucking stupid. If they let people buy the tickets without a tickbox or warning or any sort of indication they would need proof of vaccination, what did they think would happen.

[chronovore]

I don’t mind vaccine passports either, though with the Delta variant I think everyone should just be wearing a mask anyway. The theater was requiring masks for everybody, and vaccine proof, but as you say the problem is that they implemented it on this day and did not have a checkbox on the tickets.

It is almost certain that the ticket vendor is simply a third-party online storefront that hasn’t had it implemented yet. However, there must at least be a note field that someone neglected to fill out. There’s always going to be a spot where the seller can write an additional note to the purchaser.

[Bebpo]

Satan is still cool as a baddie.

Satan > Lovecraft Space Shit.

Idk, really? It just feels hokey and puritan to me these days. Like I'm fine with stuff like the Conjuring movies being about specific demons causing a ruckus, but Satan has been normalized way too much in present society to be scary. When I think of Satan I think of like South Park or sexy Lucifer from Shin Megami Tensei.

What are some good movies in the last 20-30 years where Satan is an antagonist and it works and is creepy/spooky/scary?

It's why i disliked the second half of Bloodborne.

 

[Bebpo]

I will give you that Lovecraft is overplayed to hell in the last decade+

2nd half of Bloodborne still amazing tho and best Lovecraft game ever got.

[GreatSageEqualOfHeaven]

Lovecraft shit and Demonic / Satanic / Cult shit still have their place in being 2spoopy.

You know what doesn't? (Which occurred to me after watching a film Joe Molotov talked about upthread which I'm not going to name for spoilers, as its the big reveal of who the big bad is)
The MAFIA.

Post Analyse This / Sopranos good luck trying to sell me on the mafia being terrifying like supernatural / extraterrestrial shit is

Finished Fear Street Trilogy movie #3. Was solid. The first half in 1666 was kinda generic and no Vvitch, but the second half was fun and pulled it all together for a strong ending.

yeah, I'm glad they pulled it together at the end - like I said upthread, I was curious how they were going to do a The Crucible when they'd already established that yeah there absolutely is a supernatural being involved, but they pulled that off too.

Part 2 was probably the weakest of the three, and went on too long for what it needed to be - I'm not sure if it would even stand up as an isolated film, let alone as the middle of a trilogy. They could have maybe made it an anthology of all the other killers that didnt get much backstory.

[Potato]

Satan hasn't been scary since fundamental religion became a fringe element in society

[Don Rumata]

I think "X isn't scary" as a general statement, is a flawed argument.
If you're an adult, nothing in a movie is "scary", it depends on both personal history and how it's shot, whether it's effective in making your skin crawl.

The VVitch has Satan as a baddie, and makes great use of it, but it's not like you cover you face in terror.
The same is true for Eldritch, ghosts, and any other supernatural (or non-supernatural, tbh) villain.

Whether one or the other is more effective for you, aside from the quality of the movie, is probably down to culture & personal history.
I've never been religious but i grew up around rural Euro towns/villages, so i guess anything to do with witches and that kind of stuff, stimulates me more than other things.
Maybe if you grew up in a big modern city, other things activate that response better.

Anyway, yeah i preferred Bloodborne better when it was about beasts, werewolves and witches.
I don't hate the Lovecraft thing, i just don't like it as much, and i'm fine with anyone having their preference, but i hate how to some people the former is dumb, while the latter is somehow "thinking man's" horror.

[Mupepe]

Rewatching Tenet. Definitely Nolan’s worst film, but my god just so good in certain ways. He reminds me of M Night Shyamalamadingdong. His vision usually exceeds his talent, but both have such an eye and talent for certain for things that I am always entertained by their movies. The dialogue is garbage, editing is questionable but design is just fucking brilliant.

[bork]

Guys, it's THE Suicide Squad.


It was OK- it felt like James Gunn made an R-rated Guardians Of The Galaxy-type movie, and yet despite all the death and destruction, it was more of a positive, less dark and brooding movie than all the other DC shit.  I liked King Shark more than Groot I guess.

Kind of nice that we're going to be getting more of this with the Peacemaker TV series.

Suicide Squad isn't great. It's better than the first Suicide Squad, but that's not saying anything.

There's a scene where the office workers are dancing around as part of a music video, celebrating the Squad deaths and collecting their monies. It's pretty meanspirited. As is the setup for the joke about the bird lighting on the dead guy's face and taking a bite.

And for some reason these people all work in a tiny, cramped office and they're always screaming.

Can someone here please explain to me what was going on with

spoiler (click to show/hide)

King Shark and those jellyfish monsters in the huge tank? Was there any setup or context?

[close]

I really want to know what the thing about killing birds in this movie was.  Like there's the one setup you mentioned, but there was still more than that, lol.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Can't really explain the King Shark thing other than maybe he thought he found little creatures he could bond with and then they end up being like alien piranhas. 

[close]

[Sideshow Raheem]

Guys, it's THE Suicide Squad.


It was OK- it felt like James Gunn made an R-rated Guardians Of The Galaxy-type movie, and yet despite all the death and destruction, it was more of a positive, less dark and brooding movie than all the other DC shit.  I liked King Shark more than Groot I guess.

Kind of nice that we're going to be getting more of this with the Peacemaker TV series.

Suicide Squad isn't great. It's better than the first Suicide Squad, but that's not saying anything.

There's a scene where the office workers are dancing around as part of a music video, celebrating the Squad deaths and collecting their monies. It's pretty meanspirited. As is the setup for the joke about the bird lighting on the dead guy's face and taking a bite.

And for some reason these people all work in a tiny, cramped office and they're always screaming.

Can someone here please explain to me what was going on with

spoiler (click to show/hide)

King Shark and those jellyfish monsters in the huge tank? Was there any setup or context?

[close]

I really want to know what the thing about killing birds in this movie was.  Like there's the one setup you mentioned, but there was still more than that, lol.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Can't really explain the King Shark thing other than maybe he thought he found little creatures he could bond with and then they end up being like alien piranhas. 

[close]

Yeah, you're right. I forgot about that other scene. It's really gratuitous.

[Bebpo]

I'm surprised everyone loves King Shark.

I like King Shark in the animated stuff, but outside a few funny bits like raising his hand I thought he was one of the worst/least interesting CG comic characters. I honestly liked Weasel more because he looked hilarious af and wished he had more screentime. "He's not a werewolf, he's harmless! Ok, he's not harmless he killed 27 children, but he's fine!" 

Also I think Stallone honestly makes King Shark worse. To me he came across as a terrible VA.

[team filler]

I like how he looks in the movie and not much else 

[Bebpo]

Watched Kurosawa's last great epic Ran for the first time.

I liked it and it's paced pretty well even by modern standards outside all the moments spent on King Lear/Hidetora just rambling around in Noh-style madness dancing. The colors are gorgeous in the latest restoration and HDR. I like how Kurosawa adapted the plot of King Lear. It's both pretty similar but also pretty different and I think this is more streamlined.

But it's pretty bleak & depressing.